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Godzilla Minus Zero Surpasses Predator: Badlands in Previews
Confirmed
In Short: Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to 2023's Godzilla Minus One, has surpassed Predator: Badlands in previews, earning $6 million.
Godzilla Minus Zero, the highly anticipated sequel to 2023's 'Godzilla Minus One,' has earned approximately $6 million in previews, surpassing the opening day performance of 'Predator: Badlands.'
The official trailer, released on the Godzilla YouTube channel, hints at a new threat that could potentially surpass Godzilla's capabilities. The trailer's final shot suggests that this new menace might be beyond humanity's understanding.
According to ComicBook.com, the plot of Godzilla Minus Zero revolves around a new kaiju, a reimagined Ghidorah, which has crash-landed on Earth and transformed into a dragon-like creature. The film's narrative hinges on the efforts of the Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau, led by Kenji Noda, to combat this new threat.
The film's opening-day performance reached 201 percent of the figure recorded by its predecessor, Godzilla Minus One, giving the franchise a grand start. Toho’s numbers, with the record ranking from Kogyo Tsushinsha, were reported by Eiga.com and Cinema Today, and they put the first-day gross at ¥910 million (about $5.8 million) on more than 590,000 tickets sold.
The film's marketing strategy has been unique, with the official description including the sentences, 'There is no third time. Everything ends here.' This approach suggests that the film could potentially conclude the current storyline while leaving room for future explorations of the Godzilla universe.
Godzilla Minus Zero is set in 1949 and opens with a startling sequence where Ghidorah, with only one head, destroys the city of Matsumoto. The film features a mix of aerial battles and ground-level action, with a surprising shot of Godzilla falling from the sky.
The film's success is also attributed to the performance of Imax fans shows on Tuesday and today, which will be rolled into Thursday previews.
Godzilla Minus Zero, the 37th film in the long-running Godzilla franchise, has been well-received by fans and critics alike, with many praising the film's unique take on the kaiju genre.
Background
Godzilla Minus Zero is a 2026 Japanese epic kaiju film written, directed, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. A sequel to Godzilla Minus One (2023), it is the 39th film in the Godzilla franchise, the 34th film thereof produced by Toho, and the sixth installment in the franchise's Reiwa era.
Predator: Badlands is a 2025 American science fiction action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison from a story by Trachtenberg and Aison. It is the seventh installment in the Predator franchise.
What's confirmed
- The larger plot of Godzilla Minus Zero hinges on the arrival of a new kaiju, featuring a brand new take on Ghidorah, an alien species that crash-landed on Earth and assumed the form of a dragon-like creature after meshing together some of the wildlife it encountered in its first form.
What's still developing
- Following his defeat, the heart of Godzilla began to sink to the ocean floor just as it started to regenerate and begin to beat again, signaling his return.
- That said, Toho selling the new movie as the end of this saga means these two movies can, in theory, exist as their own continuity while the studio potentially explores other Godzilla ideas.
- Unbeknownst to everyone, though, Murakami’s plan to control Godzilla isn’t an altruistic one, as he has hopes for revenge against the United States following his family’s death in Hiroshima.
- Though they’ve stayed busy, the newly formed Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau, headed up by Minus One ‘s Kenji Noda, must lead a group of scientists eager for a way to stop the new monster.
- If Godzilla still being alive and wandering back into the ocean wasn’t a sign that there was still more story to tell, the two main characters running off to live another day makes it all doubly obvious.
- Key to this tech, though, is Noriko Shikishima, whose encounter with Godzilla in the first movie has left her partially mutated, with Godzilla cells growing out of her body (and her eye color changed).
- After a failed attempt to kill Ghidorah ends up causing the kaiju to mutate (and grow his signature extra heads and tails), the team realizes that perhaps the best way to combat the beast will be fighting fire with fire, planning to use technology by Kanji Murakami, a biologist who has crafted a technology that can be used to lure (and potentially control) Godzilla out of hiding.
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- The 37th film in the long-running Godzilla franchise, some may have expected it to come and go like many Godzilla films before it, but there was something special about this entry.
- Godzilla is back once again to stomp around and cause chaos, and we love to see it!
- “A lot of producers and very big names in Hollywood reached out to me, and there were several projects I wish I could have jumped on in a heartbeat,” Yamazaki tells The Hollywood Reporter via a translator in support of Godzilla Minus Zero ’s Nov. 6 theatrical release.
- Director Takashi Yamazaki, who also wrote the script and oversaw the visual effects, said, 'Godzilla, if you trace back to its origins, is a symbol of terror, war and nuclear power.